It's well known that Der Furor is the most litigious president, if not the most litigious individual in American history. His immediate reaction to any perceived slight or setback is to unleash his stable of morally unmoored lawyers to bury his opponent under a pile of expensive and time-consuming litigation. The goal isn't necessarily to win, it's to crush his foes using the law as a weapon.
As reporter Elizabeth Williamson noted in a recent New York Times article, there are 1.3 million lawyers in the United States today, and about 115,000 of them work for the nation’s largest 100 firms. That's a lot of lawyers, and a lot of money spent on billable hours of torturous litigation every year, instead of on medical care, housing, education, and other needs. Thus, it's time to revisit Tom Paxton's wonderful ode to lawyers from a few years back ...
Here are the lyrics:
Humankind has survived some disasters, I'm sureLike locusts and flash floods and fluThere's never a moment when we've been secureFrom the ills that the flesh is heir toIf it isn't a war, it's some gruesome diseaseIf it isn't disease, then it's warBut there's worse still to come, and I'm asking you pleaseHow the world's gonna take any more?(CHORUS:)In ten years we're gonna have one million lawyersOne million lawyers, one million lawyersIn ten years we're gonna have one million lawyersHow much can a poor nation stand?The world shook with dread of Atilla the HunAs he conquered with fire and steelAnd Genghis and Kubla and all of the KahnsGround a groaning world under the heelDisaster, disaster, so what else is new?We've suffered the worst and then someSo I'm sorry to tell you, my suffering friendsOf the terrible scourge still to come(CHORUS)Oh, a suffering world cries for mercyAs far as the eye can seeLawyers around every bend in the roadLawyers in every treeLawyers in restaurants, lawyers in clubsLawyers behind every doorBehind windows and potted plants, shade trees and shrubsLawyers on pogo sticks, lawyers in politics!(CHORUS)In spring there's tornadoes and rampaging floodsIn summer it's heat stroke and draughtThere's Ivy League football to ruin the fallIt's a terrible scourge, without doubtThere are blizzards to batter the shivering plainThere are dust storms that strike, but far worseIs the threat of disaster to shrivel the brainIt's the threat of implacable curseIn ten years we're gonna have one million lawyersOne million lawyers, one million lawyersIn ten years we're gonna have one million lawyersHow much can a poor nation stand?How much can a poor nation stand?
Have a good day, enjoy the rest of your weekend, and try to avoid being the target of ruinous litigation, difficult as it may be in these lawyer-infested times. More thoughts coming.
Bilbo
2 comments:
His prediction finally came true.
Until you need a good one. I'm grateful to the lawyers that got me out of one jam or another! But your point is well taken.
Post a Comment